1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a configuration for the management of data of a plurality of programmable personal medical devices, in particular implantable medical devices, such as a cardiac pacemaker, defibrillator, or the like, having the following components: first plurality of personal devices, second plurality of patient devices, each calibrated to at least one personal device, third plurality of programming devices, each calibrated to at least one personal device, central management unit, service center, and management database.
2. Description of the Related Art
The management of data of a plurality of programmable personal medical devices essentially comprises two generally differentiable data streams in the present context.
On one hand, data in regard to the medical device and in regard to its operation occur during operation of a personal medical device such as a cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator. These data result on one hand from the operating state of the personal device itself and on the other hand from data which are detected by the personal device. Such data are significant in particular for optimum aftercare. Aftercare data which have been recorded by an implant are typically read out from the implant by a programming device and exchanged between the programming device and a hospital information system via local connections present in a hospital. A decentralized software installation is used in this case, which makes corresponding maintenance effort necessary. An object of the present invention is to provide a configuration and a method for the management of data such as aftercare data, by which maintenance effort is reduced in comparison to typical systems.
A further aspect results because, due to different specifications in particular hospital information systems, synchronization and/or central data collection for aftercare data in particular is only possible with great difficulties. It is conceivable that in addition to the particular local hospital information systems, there is a demand for providing national electronic patient files, for example. This may only be achieved with great difficulties in the event of a local data transfer as is typically provided.